What’s everyone up to? Poised in front of the computer throne making social business on Facebook? Or Twittering? Texting? Blogging?
Fresh off a solo screening of The Social Network, I’m hankering for an afterglow discussion. Since no one is available, I’m writing, not discussing my views. Would that qualify as being social?
Facebook began as a social networking vehicle for college students. Eventually it became outrageously popular with grownups because life after college makes it hard to stay in touch with friends. College classes, parties, and roommates put social contacting at its peak, so it was bound to attract the rest of the population longing to reconnect to that energy. Still, it’s a far cry from the basement lounge in “That 70’s Show” and you can’t get that from the glow of a computer screen.
Entertaining myself one evening, I searched for groups of friends from past stages in my life, finding guys I might have married, couples I fixed up, and friendships that dissolved. I felt nosy and weird for days. Movies are like a peep show, and so is Facebook. Information is there for the taking.
The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, stuggles with dilemas remeniscent of Charles Foster Kane and Ebenezer Scrooge. Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg’s only friend at FB inception, helps build Xanadu, but when it rises to glory, Saverin is tossed to the curb. Insecurity keeps the girl Zuckerberg loves out of the picture. Like Scrooge, a lack of self love disables their connection. Unable to woo her with remarkable success, Zuckerberg can’t believe her rejection. He falls prey to the shortcomings of his own creation. She tells him that what you say or blog can never be taken back, especially when you put it on the internet.
The irony of the story is that the inventor of the consummate social network can’t consummate - socially. Also, if a key feature of FB is friendship-building, Zuckerberg is deficient and disinterested in his own arena. Technology is his comforting thumb.
His brain is his weapon of choice, his mind a formidable opponent, but in the end, his win is bittersweet.
Too bad you can't buy love or friendship. (I mean real love and friendship).
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